“With frozen school budgets and the media reporting that headteachers are contacting parents with concerns on balancing the books, school finances are again in the spotlight. This impacts all areas of school life, including technology spend - Promenthean reports that the average spend by secondary schools on technology fell 7% last year and primaries were also spending 4% less. At RM Education we work with almost 8,000 schools, helping them put the right technology in place which both helps reduce a school’s overall operating costs, as well as supporting learning, enabling these schools to achieve the best outcomes for their pupils.”

Jayne Davies, Services Director, RM Education

I must begin by giving my definition of ‘learning’. Learning is not remembering facts in order to pass an examination: learning is understanding. By understanding, the learning is not forgotten. The times I have heard it said “you must learn this” is countless when, in fact, what should be said is “you must understand this”.

How are cloud-based technologies being used in the US education system? Edtech expert Anthony VonBank discusses the opportunities afforded to American schools, and the pros and cons of each.

[As seen in the February 2014 edition of our magazine]

It’s not hard to see why cloud-based productivity tools are a hit with educators and students. With a minimum of setup time, teachers can share documents from a variety of formats, allow them to manipulate the documents in real time, and make copies for their own records. Students can work collaboratively on documents and presentations, create surveys and operate spreadsheets from different computers, anywhere in the world, in live time.

Matt Britland focuses on the impending force of cloud computing as the future dominant mover and shaker in schools and colleges which is set to underpin what we now call 'social learning'.

A couple of weeks ago I was asked what I thought the future of technology in education was.

It is a really interesting question and one that I am required to think about all the time. By its very nature, technology changes at a fast pace and making it accessible to pupils, teachers and other stakeholders is an ongoing challenge.

So what is the future? Is it the iPad?

No, I don't think it is. For me, the future is not about one specific device. Don't get me wrong, I love the iPad. In fact, I have just finished a trial to see if using them really does support teaching and learning – and they have proved effective. I've written about the trial in more detail on my blog.

Photo credit: johnnyryan1